


well, fuck.

by samarasharazi



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Babysitting, Established Relationship, M/M, Swearing, Toddlers, don't ever swear in front of a child, donghyuck is really going through it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24930415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samarasharazi/pseuds/samarasharazi
Summary: Don't ask Donghyuck why he thought looking after a child was okay if he can't even look after himself. Now he has purple paint on his favourite hoodie and looks like someone from Shrek, and it's like...fuck.Maybe just don't actually say that to the child. They're like parrots. Trust me.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 16
Kudos: 215





	well, fuck.

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to my first attempt at something that's just F L U F F Y. I actually love this small work and it just makes *sparkle*. half way through this story I literally realised that donghyuck is me and I am donghyuck, everything about this story is me. I'm projecting the undying wish to babysit my neighbours children, the young family who r in fact renting the house opposite us. I just haven't moved out yet *duck face*.
> 
> support or bitch about me here if you wish, I'm very flexible:  
> [my twitter](https://twitter.com/doyounglberry)  
> [my curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/samarasharazi)
> 
> don't forget to comment and leave a kudos if you liked this piece and wish for more <33
> 
> (also for context, this is in Melbourne so the shit they're talking about is the victorian education system. another thing, its summer during Christmas and our exams too when we finish school...swag)

Donghyuck thinks whoever had half the brain to trust him with their child is very stupid. In all honesty, he doesn’t even know how he landed the job, but here he was covered in purple acrylic paint and twisty ties in his hair. Apparently he looked like a ‘dragon princess’ now. When Donghyuck asked what that meant, little three and a half year old Bella said to him:

“You know, that dragon in Shrek! The one who had donkey babies!”

Never has he wondered how someone can be so cute but so irritating at the same time. How the fuck does someone get jam in their pigtails?

Somehow (and by the graces of the gods), Donghyuck had managed dinner pretty well for the two of them. Before they’d left, Mrs. Griffin had said he could make anything and she’d eat it. Basically, she was a food vacuum. Donghyuck doesn’t know whether that scared him or not when he heard it. Bella certainly proved her worth when he’d set the small bowl of pasta in front of her.

Not to toot his own horn too much, but Donghyuck did make a hella mean carbonara when he wanted to. Bella _certainly_ approved of it. She even asked for a second bowl. He happily obliged, listening to the giggles of the little girl as she watched the Disney cartoon on the tv.

They were hanging out together now, because Mr. and Mrs. Griffin had specifically instructed that the tv could only be on during dinner to distract Bella and another half hour before she went to sleep. Apparently it made her sleepy. Donghyuck could very much tell you that she was _not_ sleepy at the moment.

That’s how he ended looking like the dragon from Shrek while Bella pranced around the living room with her little purple tutu (ironic, right?) happily, reciting the alphabet backwards like it was the easiest thing in the world. Then Donghyuck looked down and noticed the very nice sized dollop of paint smudged on his favourite hoodie.

“Fuck!” he shouted. Very dumbly, Donghyuck didn’t seem to realise what just came out of his mouth and resumed to worry over his now stained black hoodie.

Okay, fine. _Mark’s_ hoodie.

Bella turned around at the sudden sound in the house and walked over to his side. Surprisingly, she looked very concerned for such a young gremlin.

“Are you okay, Donghyuckie?” she asked, smiling brightly as if it was going to mend all the injuries she thought he had. That’s what her parents taught her at least.

Donghyuck on the other hand, was struggling to keep his face neutral and the little girl was so close to him. She was almost demanding to be picked up. He could feel the anger in him subsiding. “Nothing. Come on, let’s draw more.”

They went back and sat at the kiddie table that Donghyuck could hardly fit on to draw. Bella drew a big rainbow with her crayons while he sat there secretly scrolling through his phone and sketching a rather scary lion at the same time. Call it multitasking.

“What does ‘fuck’ mean?” Bella asked and looked up from the sketchpad in front of her. Donghyuck immediately froze.

The level of fucked he was had him drowning ten feet under. He gave her a pained smile and slowly set down the pink marker he was using. There seemed to only be pink and green, all the others had dried out without their lids securely snapped on.

“Uh,” Donghyuck stumbled, staring at literally everywhere in the house before looking at her. The place was way too lavish for a broke college student like him. “It’s a bad word, you shouldn’t say it.”

But Bella was like those dolls you took the batteries out and they still kept talking. That wasn’t normal. “But you said it. You said fuck before.”

If someone put a thermometer on his cheeks, the temperature could battle the sun. Donghyuck felt like the biggest screw up and there Bella was, waiting patiently for his answer. An answer which Donghyuck was very much struggling to think of.

Pulling the biggest smile he could, Donghyuck gathered Bella forward until they sat on the couch together with his hand safely wrapped around her shoulders. He could feel the cheap tulle scratching at his exposed skin but paid no mind to it.

“Well…I’m an adult, Bella,” he said, “and adults can say some stuff that kids can’t.”

“That’s not fair, I want to be an adult too!”

Donghyuck huffed and fiddled with the ends of Bella’s hair. “In a few years!” he exclaimed. Bella wasn’t listening.

“But it sounds so cool! Fuck, fuck, _fuck,_ fuck!” she sang, throwing her hands in the air like she was an opera singer. The high pitch screaming was giving Donghyuck a headache.

He stood up and away from her, his eyes widening at the mess he’d created. He was surely not only going to get a bad rating from the parents, but also no money for the six hours he was spending here. Donghyuck needed help.

“Hey Bella, you know what’s even cooler?” he tried, drawing forward until he was kneeling in front of her. She stared at him from her seat, bundled up in the blanket the dog liked wrapping around itself. Donghyuck should also probably take that away from her too.

“What?” she asked. Donghyuck smiled and put up out his hands in front of her, palms up. In them, were two little easter chocolates.

Bella gasped at the ‘magic trick’ and look back to him with those big doe eyes. It was so _fucking_ adorable. “You’re a magicician!” she yelled.

“Ma-gician, Bella,” Donghyuck corrected her. Before she could grab for the egg shaped treats, his closed his palms and put them behind his back.

Donghyuck had taken up the offer to babysit a child (a child!) right after the sad news was broken that he’d been fired from his job at the ice cream parlour. When the news was announced over dinner with his friends, it seemed they were more upset over the fact they wouldn’t be getting discounts anymore rather than Donghyuck not having a way to pay for his rent. Mark had been the one who told him to look for babysitting opportunities. Reminded him that he already had his first aid certificate and WWCC.

Boy, Donghyuck was really ready to go and beg to his old boss to take him back.

“No chocolate for miss Bella if she keeps using that word I said wasn’t good,” Donghyuck said, shaking his head at the scolded girl. She at least had the decency to look a little guilty.

“Okay, I won’t say fuck anymore.”

Yeah, Donghyuck was really gonna need some help.

—

**“Oh baby, you’re so stuffed,”** Mark laughed into the phone. It drowned out Donghyuck’s voice and though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, he really didn’t mind listening to it forever.

When he called and explained the extra cleaning he was going to have to do on the hoodie, it was surprising to Donghyuck hearing Mark laugh until he fell off his bed. Then it was Donghyuck laughing and Mark pouting. But he wasn’t upset. The next time he fell down, he was smart enough to place blankets on the floor as he heard the little dilemma Donghyuck had created for himself.

With one eye on Bella reading a book about cats and dogs, Donghyuck huffed as he melted right into the couch. “I know, that’s why I called,” he said to his boyfriend. Really, all he was hoping for was some moral support and comfort but neither of those things usually came from Mark.

**“Make her a deal or something. Babe, you know I’m not good with kids!”**

Donghyuck rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. “I know, Mark. You’re absolutely hopeless.”

Right after the whole incident, Bella was nagging Donghyuck about her tutu being so annoying. He’d checked the massive ass clock on the wall then and saw that it was around the time Mrs. Griffin told him he could start getting Bella ready for bed. So they climbed up the stairs together, Donghyuck pretending to be a big monster chasing after a princess and you could hear her screams radiate around the house as he chased her up the steps. When he caught her, he flung her in the air and watched her bright face giggle in his arms.

He dressed Bella in her favourite Mulan pyjamas (she exclaimed, “she’s so strong, I wanna be like her when I grow up!”) and brought her back downstairs so he could make a small snack to make her sleepy. He found that a small honey and milk smoothie for the both of them did the trick brilliantly. He even put a pretty blue and sparkly straw for Bella, and she took it very enthusiastically from his hands. It was getting quite hot these past few nights in Victoria, and with Christmas so vastly approaching, Donghyuck thought a smoothie would cool her down a little.

 **“Sorry, baby. I’m out of ideas here,”** Mark said.

“You only had one idea in the first place! You’re not as smart as you put yourself out to be,” Donghyuck grumbled, watching Bella. She was still reading her book.

Mark sighed from the other side and knowing his boyfriend, the sound of plastic in the background was probably another iced coffee being opened for like the 3rd time tonight. Yeah, his boyfriend really liked overworking himself at times. This was old news to Donghyuck.

 **“Has she said it again since then?”** he asked, trying his best to be supportive. Donghyuck softened under Mark’s words and practically melted into the already cloud-like couch.

“Yeah, once when I had my back turned to her as I was trying to find her pj’s,” Donghyuck said. Mark hummed against his ear.

**“Maybe tell her that if she ever says it again, that you won’t ever be able to come back and she won’t see you again. She likes you right?”**

“Yeah,” Donghyuck mumbled.

 **“Well I mean, who doesn’t. Besides the point, I’m just saying that if she’s already attached to you, she’ll want you to babysit her again and hence will listen when you tell her that,”** Mark said, pausing to drink his coffee.

Realistically, it was good idea. “That’s actually somewhat a smart and intelligible idea, babe,” Donghyuck giggled and threw back his head into the cushions. Bella looked up briefly from her book to look at him curiously before going back to whatever she was doing before. The thing was, Donghyuck had no idea if she even liked him or not. He was just guessing when he said yes to Mark.

**“I know, it’s all the caffeine I’ve inhaled in the past six hours.”**

The call had to fall short when Bella’s second round of yawning came through, making Donghyuck join along long enough that Mark asked him if he was tired and wanted to hang up. He said yeah, he probably should put Bella to sleep.

 **“Well, I’ll let you put little Miss Potty Mouth to bed and convince her to shut up,”** Mark said faintly, as if he was lowering his voice just for his boyfriend.

Donghyuck snorted and stood up to walk over to Bella. “Come over tomorrow, you can stay over too for the night.”

**“Hmm, everything for you, baby.”**

When they hung up with their usual, “I love you,” and “well, I love you more,” Donghyuck made it his quick mission to get Bella to help him pack up all her toys with:

“Whoever packs up the fastest is the coolest princess in the world.”

He’s never seen a child move so fast.

Together once more, they trudged up the stairs this time without the monster act. Bella’s feet were dragging a bit too much for that. What he did though was hum her a sweet song as they cleaned up her a room a little and as he watched her brush her teeth. He waited for her and responded to a sad photo of a melted Caramello sent by Renjun when he told her to go do any toilet business she needed to do.

Not suspecting anything, Donghyuck was still on his phone when the bathroom door cracked open and a flying child came jumping right into him, pushing him back until he fell over the bed.

“Hyuckie, it’s sleepy time!” Bella squealed into his ear and rolled off him to jump on the bed. He really had no power left in him to tell her to stop. In fact, he let her grab his shoulders and jump off them onto the bed like a catapult.

“Okay, Bella,” Donghyuck said as he grabbed her small body and tackled the gremlin under her duvet. “Let’s put you to bed.”

See, Donghyuck had met Bella and her parents a long time ago back when he was still living with his parents. The young family began renting the house in front of them to start a new life. They were the new neighbours that integrated in a street full of established doctors and lawyers and then, bam, there they were. E _veryone_ was dying to know why the fuck these people decided to come live here out of all places.

Mrs. Griffin was just coming from a walk in her yoga attire (the typical inner suburb clothing it seemed for white mums) while pushing the pram when Donghyuck thought it was the best opportunity to go up to her and introduce himself as the boy living opposite.

And it’d been nice, pleasant even. He wasn’t really expecting much when he walked across the empty road to say hello, but when he introduced himself he couldn’t help believe how much her eyes lightened. So they talked and talked, and they discussed how he was in his last year of high school and how he was taking up IB instead of VCE, his parents, the name of the little baby sleeping in the pram. Bella. She was only a few months old then.

“Hyuckie, will you read me a story?” Bella asked, batting her lashes. The bed light beside them shadowed her resting body against the yellow wall the bed was plastered next to. Donghyuck smiled down at her and nodded.

“Do you want to hear the one my mum used to tell me and my friends?” Bella nodded. “Hmm, okay. Can I ask you one thing before I do though?” Another nod.

Donghyuck was bad at things like this. He didn’t really know the restrictions on things and was scared how to bring it up. He wasn’t really the best with his words, he left that up to Mark. When they get married one day, he’s gonna be the one giving the speech. Donghyuck was very sure of that.

“That word I said before- the bad one that you keep saying- well, I could get in very bad trouble if you keep saying it,” Donghyuck said, bringing up the quilt to her chest. She looked at him curiously. He’d taken her hair out of the pigtails a while ago.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because it’s not good. If you want me to look after you again then you can’t say it anymore, please.”

The room was silent for a moment exempt from the clock ticking every second on the opposite wall. Bella was looking at Donghyuck and he was looking at the sparkly butterfly on her curtains. He didn’t even know how it was possible for something to be awkward with a child, but here he was, being awkward.

“Ok, I like Hyuckie too much,” she said simply and smiled up at him when he looked at her shocked. He didn’t think it was going to be that easy.

Donghyuck squinted at her to see if she was joking. “You sure? Hyuckie won’t come to say hello and give you chocolates anymore if you do.”

But she nodded very enthusiastically and clapped her hands in front of his chest. “I love Mr. Dongles, I would cry if I didn’t get anymore chocolates!”

He fell back and laughed at her remark and shook his head. Bella smiled when she found Donghyuck laughing at what she said (the three year old didn’t exactly know what was funny, but she thought Mr. Dongles looked very pretty like a prince when he laughed like that).

“The story, Hyuckie!” she reminded him, shaking his wrist. Donghyuck clicked his tongue and nodded.

“Right, the story. Once upon a time, there was a flower prince…”

When Donghyuck skipped down the stairs quietly, he checked his phone and found it was already half past nine by the time he was sure Bella had fallen asleep and left her room. Mrs. and Mr. Griffin said he could just lounge around while he waited for them to come back around midnight or do whatever. If he was still hungry he could even make more food for himself, but Donghyuck wasn’t really bothered to clean up even more so he just settled with watching a Studio Ghibli movie on their Netflix while he waited. He poured some orange juice from their fridge and called it a day.

By the time the two adults came through the doors as silently as they could, Donghyuck was just scrolling his group chat with the other boys. Apparently, Jisung had accidentally asked a girl out and the rest of them were freaking out because _he_ was freaking out. Chenle was now trying to convince him to go to the date instead of cancelling, because it seemed the chick was one of the most popular girls in the grade and exams were finishing this week. Jeno and Renjun were laughing the most they could through text. Jaemin was asleep and Mark…well Mark was probably onto his second assignment of the night. Most likely that was due in the next hour.

“Donghyuck?” Mrs. Griffin walked down the hallway and into the living room where he was settled into the couch, completely comfortable. She chuckled to herself when she saw the boy melted so much into the cushions that it seemed he didn’t even hear her. “We’re back.”

“Mrs. Griffin!” Donghyuck was startled by the sudden extra voice and sat up to find a completely dressed up Mrs. Griffin standing there and her husband softly coming up behind her to smile at Donghyuck. He smiled back.

“Hello, Donghyuck. Hope nothing was too much trouble,” Bella’s dad said as he shrugged off his suit jacket and placed it behind one of the dining chairs. “Is Isabelle asleep now?”

Donghyuck nodded and spun around to turn off the tv behind him. The house went into silence as he collected his backpack and jacket slowly, not minding the small conversation the two were having in front of him.

“She went to sleep around 9:30 after I gave her a smoothie. We played with paints and play dough, she even read a little! We learnt how to read ‘cat’ and ‘mat’ today, she’s very smart,” Donghyuck rambled, smiling at her parents. They appreciated the little report he gave them.

They walked him to the entrance and helped Donghyuck gather everything so he didn’t leave anything behind. Not that it was much of a struggle in the end, he was going to spend the night with his parents back in his room since he wasn’t bothered to drive all the way back into the city at this time at night. It would be too busy on a Friday night.

“Thank you for looking after our daughter, we really were desperate and you were the only potential sitter that Bella actually likes. I’m so glad you accepted the offer,” Mrs. Griffin said, taking out her wallet to hand Donghyuck a green hundred dollar bill. He gratefully took it and bowed on instinct.

“It’s really no problem. I adore your daughter anyway, so it was amazing to spend time together. If you ever need someone to look after her again, don’t hesitate to text me,” Donghyuck said and smiled. They nodded and Mr. Griffin opened the door for him.

“We definitely will, she always complains about the other ones. But she was so excited for tonight.”

They said their goodbyes and Donghyuck walked down the front yard, turning back one more time when they buzzed the front gate open for him. He waved and stepped out, slowly clicking the gate closed behind him.

Donghyuck’s phone buzzed and when he looked down at his screen, he saw Mark’s name as a notification blinding his lock screen. It was of the two of them back at schoolies last year by the beach at night, cuddled up together. He loved the picture too much to change it even months later.

**Baby Lee**

hey gorgeous

have you finished yet?

just wanted to check in

**Haechan**

yeah i just left

babe

i want a kid

so bad

with me?

lmao who else?

okay

anything for you darling

this yr?

now hold on a second

**Author's Note:**

> don't forget to comment and leave a kudos cause I'm insecure and demand ur love <33333333


End file.
